


Chef's Line

by revise_leviathan



Series: that one shameless g-era ot3 au [2]
Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: Established Relationship, G era, Implied Sexual Content, Non-Sexual Bondage, Other, well mostly at least
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2018-08-22
Packaged: 2019-06-30 23:23:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15761844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/revise_leviathan/pseuds/revise_leviathan
Summary: In which Ren learns a lesson about not interrupting Kai's cooking, except he doesn't. It's hard to tell whether Aichi turns out to be a more or less effective Ren-sitter than any of his other friends.





	Chef's Line

**Author's Note:**

> hey look it's another ot3 fic written between the hours of 2 and 4 am except this one is self-indulgent bondage trash to boot

With only one of the three of them permanently living in Japan for the time being, it’s obvious who usually ends up hosting when Aichi, Kai and Ren have the rare chance to get together in person. Aichi is always a little too embarrassed to do more than bring the two of them over for dinner occasionally in hopes Emi and Shizuka won’t figure anything out, and Kai’s tiny apartment, while still maintained by his family, isn’t exactly sized to house three adults even for a brief period of time. Aichi hadn’t actually been sure Ren didn’t live _in_ Foo Fighter’s headquarters for a while, but whether he did or not, it became inconvenient enough after he was appointed to United Sanctuary to warrant a change of scenery. And if there’s something Ren’s certainly not lacking in, it’s the funds and status to live somewhere that always has Aichi feeling like he’s landed on another planet until he actually reaches the right apartment.

He manages to not fumble out or drop the spare keycard today, which is always a good start, and as soon as he opens the door, he can hear the loud crackle and enticing smell of what he guesses is Kai cooking even before he spots the tell-tale shock of brown hair moving around over the low wall between foyer and kitchen. As Aichi closes the door with a heavy clicking sound, Kai glances up and nods in greeting, but he’s clearly trying to focus on the dark marble benchtops in front of him for right now. It’s him even being able to have that level of focus that has Aichi looking faintly confused as he walks through towards the lounge area.

“Where’s Ren-san…?”

Kai opens his mouth to answer, a prickle of irritation coming into his expression as he does. But before he actually can, there’s a loud _crash_ of something falling off the lounge and possibly hitting the coffee table on the way down. Rather than react with surprise, Kai just lets out a heavy sigh, and glances pointedly in that direction and then to Aichi before returning to his cooking.

Taking the hint that he’s apparently the one who’s going to have to deal with…whatever this is, Aichi rounds the wall segmenting the kitchen. It means he can see the loungeroom in full: neat wooden floors, long curtains drawn over towering windows, cute but undoubtedly expensive furniture mixed and matched about the room in a style typical of the owner…

…and a pile of long limbs and red hair face-down on the floor between the lounge and coffee table, making a faintly whiny noise and trying to roll out from where he’s wedged. Aichi hurries around even if Kai’s lack of concern means he’s at least going to assume it’s nothing all that _serious_ , though said lack of concern is explained very quickly as soon as Aichi kneels down to help Ren upright.

“Are you alright, Ren-sa—oh…”

Ren manages to heave his upper half off the ground just before Aichi finishes asking – heave, because he can’t exactly help himself upright when his arms are bound together in front of him. Aichi’s gaze goes from the hands to the huffy expression half-concealed by a piece of tape to the clearly recently-used roll of it sitting innocently on the floor not far from Ren, before he looks over his shoulder to Kai. Who is still determinedly focusing on his cooking, and that gets a somewhat awkward laugh out of Aichi considering the situation.

“Was he really bothering you that much, Kai-kun? It is his house…”

Ren gives a vague noise of agreement through the tape over his mouth and slumps himself over onto Aichi’s shoulder, somehow managing to bring off pouty in Kai’s direction without the actual pout being visible. All it gets is a sharp glare from Kai before his attention flicks over to Aichi.

“I warned him to stay out of the kitchen. Three times. I was hoping it wasn’t just going to encourage him.”

Ren lets out an indignant little huff through his nose before tilting his head towards Aichi instead, putting on an expression of complete innocence. Or as innocent as someone like Ren can pull off, anyway, and Aichi turns himself away from the determinedly cute image for a moment to smile a little at Kai as he slides something into the oven and drags a few more bowls over to start prepping something else.

“Is it okay if I let him go?”

“No,” is Kai’s answer the instant Aichi finishes the question, and he sighs a little himself before giving Ren an apologetic look. It’s only made slightly harder by the fact that Ren’s chosen to straighten himself up again, watching Aichi with a rather unreadable expression.

“Sorry, I guess he’s not going to—” Aichi breaks off with a yelp of surprise as Ren loops his linked hands over his head, tightening around his arms and chest and dragging him backwards against Ren’s front. It’s difficult to move from the resulting position, and as Aichi squirms a little in the grip, he can feel Ren curl around him to rest his chin on Aichi’s shoulder again and throw a pointed and almost challenging look in Kai’s direction.

Aichi can picture what’s coming almost before Kai very deliberately places down the egg he was about to crack, eyes on Ren, and attempts a reconciling smile and wave of his hands even though he can already feel himself going pink from being pressed back against Ren.

“It’s fine, I don’t mind staying like this for a little while, really…” Aichi only manages that much before Kai is in front of them and Ren’s grip tightens accordingly, only to loosen just as quickly when Kai reaches around to take a handful of Ren’s hair and pull sharply enough to elicit a sound somewhere between a protest and a moan. It’s a measured strategy, and Kai uses Ren’s moment of surprise to shove his arms back up and over, letting Aichi slip out underneath while Ren makes a petulant swat at Kai with his bound hands once he recovers himself. It’s Ren’s turn to let out a sound of surprise when Kai just grabs them and pulls Ren up to drape him over one shoulder, ignoring the muffled whining and flailing of tied-together limbs as he walks off towards the bedroom without further comment (and only a brief detour to swipe the roll of tape again).

Aichi briefly considers whether he should follow them, but instead finds himself straightening up the furniture that got shifted in the struggle. It still doesn’t seem quite right to leave it messy, and by the time he’s satisfied with it, Kai’s emerged from the bedroom again looking exasperated with the entire situation.

“You’d better keep an eye on him, or he’ll find some way to drag the bed back in here to keep annoying me,” is all he says on the way back to the kitchen, and Aichi laughs a little lightly before glancing over to the bedroom and then, after another moment or two of hesitation, heading that way himself.

Even with the gag, he can hear Ren’s loud attempts at complaining almost as soon as he opens the door, and he offers another apologetic smile and wave as he closes it behind him. This time, Kai’s bound his hands to the wooden bedframe over his head, and though he’s already managed to drape himself off the side of the bed rather awkwardly, it doesn’t look like Ren’s getting any further than that unless he finds a way to knock over the nightstand and make it yield something useful. It's almost a shame he looks so petulant about it, because Ren's choice of black sheets makes the red hair splayed across it stand out all the more, and makes Aichi have to compose himself that little bit more as well.

Aichi does him the favour of pushing his legs back up onto the mattress when he comes to sit down next to him, and though Ren makes another huffy noise through his nose, he relents a little when Aichi brushes his hair out of his face.

“I know you like making Kai impatient like this, but he’s busy, so now you’ll just have to deal with me,” Aichi says, trying to sound something like assertive but faltering the moment Ren tries to push his face against his hand. There’s another quiet whine when he pulls the hand away, and though Aichi can feel heat creeping into his cheeks, and see it when he makes the mistake of glancing towards the mirrored sliding doors of the closet, he keeps his hand to himself for the moment.

“…Did you do all that on purpose, Ren-san?” It’s a quiet, almost hesitant question. Aichi is hardly a devious mind when it comes to this sort of thing, but he’s been dating both Ren and Kai long enough to key in to when they’re riling each other up intentionally, even if it’s usually slightly after the other two do. The look Ren gives in response can hardly be called apologetic, but he lets out another tiny huff that actually sounds slightly hurt and tries to squirm in the direction of Aichi’s hand again, not quite meeting his eyes.

That’s when Aichi finally gets it, and he can’t help but laugh again as he lets his hand return to close enough reach for Ren to touch it if he tries.

“It’s been a while since we all got to see each other, hasn’t it? Why didn’t you just say you missed us?”

His hand shifts to cup Ren’s face, and Ren gives him a rather pouty, neglected look as he tilts his head into it. And then tries to roll his lower half over into him as well, which ruins the moment a little when Aichi has to throw his other hand out to avoid falling off the bed. It’s difficult to miss the hint, though, and Aichi glances back towards the door, colour in his cheeks slowly deepening, as he pulls his legs up so he’s actually sitting on the bed properly now.

“Do you want me to…” Aichi trails off there, pressing a hand to his face in embarrassment. He still can’t say it properly, even around people who are as shameless as Ren and Kai. “…keep you company until Kai finishes?”

Ren’s eyes narrow in what is almost definitely amusement at Aichi’s inability to just ask the question, but he gives an enthusiastic nod in reply even so. The somewhat delicate trace of Aichi’s fingers over his face draws out a breathy, eager noise, and the hand still on Aichi’s face twitches a little further across to try and hide the embarrassment.

“Well, if that’s what you wanted the whole time…”

Ren presses his face into the curve of Aichi’s fingers again, forcing out something undoubtedly insistent against the gag, and Aichi sighs, smiles and takes his face in both hands to thumb his hair gently out of the way and kiss his forehead.

\--

“It’s done.”

Kai opens the door abruptly an hour and a half or so later, and then pauses just as abruptly at the sight in front of him. Aichi offers him a contented, appreciative smile over Ren’s shoulder, tilting his wrist slightly to show Kai the comb in his hand once he brings it out from another brush through Ren's considerable amount of hair.

“Thank you, Kai-kun. We’ll just be a minute,” he says, tone gentle as ever, and Ren shifts slightly from his position draped against the front of Aichi’s shoulder to blink one exhausted-looking eye at Kai through the forelocks blanketing it.

Kai blinks right back. The bindings are gone, they’re both fully clothed without a hair out of place, and yet he still feels like he missed something. The expression gets a tiny laugh out of Aichi as he combs his fingers through Ren’s hair and receives a small, tired sound as Ren curls himself closer to him, arms wound lazily but possessively around his waist.

“Is there something wrong…? You look really surprised, Kai-kun,” Aichi says, something a little bit concerned in his smile, but at the same time, something else in it reminds Kai altogether too much of Ren. Specifically, Ren when he’s pretending to be obtuse about something but not quite invested in actually hiding it.

“What did you…” Kai trails off by the third word, and then just shakes his head, backing out of the room again. “Never mind. Don’t let it get cold.”

“We won’t,” Aichi reassures him, waving with his free hand as Kai lets the door shut and Ren fails to continue disguising a soft laugh.

“I should be more upset that it was you that got that face out of him and not me,” Ren says, tone still a little bit breathless but also undoubtedly amused, even if his breath hitches when Aichi runs his fingers through his hair again before the comb. “But I guess I’ll forgive you for it this once.”

“Shouldn’t I be the one saying that?” Aichi says, not quite serious but back to that seemingly awkward air he tends to take around these sorts of matters. Ren smiles in that not quite benign way of his, tilting his head so one of his narrowed eyes is visible as well.

“I hope not, if _that’s_ what happens when you don’t forgive me for bothering Kai.”

Aichi opens his mouth like he’s about to argue, and then chokes on it when Ren’s teeth worry gently against his neck.

“…How about we just have dinner?” Aichi manages, as if he’s not already the colour of a stop light, and Ren hums contentedly at the suggestion.

“Oh, of course, after he put all that time into it. But I’ll definitely make you pay for taking Kai’s side today, you know.”

The bright and innocent tone doesn’t quite match the way it makes Aichi back off in a fluster, only staying long enough to make sure he sets Ren on the bed gently before darting out the bedroom door in a flurry of unfinished apologies.

**Author's Note:**

> rip aichi  
> i'm starting to feel like this needs a direct sequel that definitely won't involve ren stepping on 2/3rds of this relationship


End file.
